Esther Nolte-‘t Hoen,
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
Utrecht University
Dr. Esther Nolte-‘t Hoen did her PhD (2003) on regulation of T cell responses in the lab of Professor Wauben at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. At this early stage, she discovered that T cells can modulate the function of antigen presenting cells by transferring proteins via small extracellular vesicles. As a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Daniel Davis’ laboratory at Imperial College London, Nolte-‘t Hoen further explored the cell biology of immune cell interactions using state-of-the-art microscopical techniques. After a second post-doc at Utrecht University, she was appointed Assistant Professor in 2013. Her research focuses on the role of extracellular vesicles in communication between immune cells at steady state and during microbial infection. Within this topic, she puts strong focus on technical aspects of extracellular vesicle purification, methods for high-throughput individual vesicle analysis, the RNA content of extracellular vesicles, and the interplay between vesicles and viruses. Nolte-‘t Hoen was awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant (1500 k€) in 2013 to explore parallel mechanisms underlying the formation of viruses and extracellular vesicles. Nolte-‘t Hoen is an active member of the International Society of Extracellular Vesicles and in 2015 organized an international research seminar for this society on how the function of extracellular vesicle-associated RNA can be unraveled.
Exploring the Small RNA World of Extracellular Vesicles
Thursday, 28 September 2017 at 09:00
Add to Calendar ▼2017-09-28 09:00:002017-09-28 10:00:00Europe/LondonExploring the Small RNA World of Extracellular VesiclesExtracellular Vesicles 2017 in Cripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UKCripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UKSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
Cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EV) have come in the limelight as biological entities containing unique combinations of lipids, proteins and genetic material containing lipids, proteins, and RNA. RNA present in EV can communicate genetically encoded messages to other cells, and may also be suitable as biomarkers for diseases. However, limited knowledge is available on the heterogeneity in the RNA content of different EV types, on mechanisms regulating RNA incorporation into EV, and on how transferred RNAs function in EV-targeted cells. Within the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles we recently reported on possibilities and limitations of strategies to analyze EV-RNA. Technical challenges include improvement and standardization of methods to purify EV away from non-EV-associated extracellular RNA, efficient recovery of minute quantities of EV-associated RNA, and biases in EV-RNA characterization. The currently most intensely studied EV-RNA biotypes are miRNAs and mRNAs, some of which have been implicated in disease progression and/or proved valuable as biomarkers. However, EV released by many different cell types are particularly rich in other small RNA biotypes such as tRNA, Y-RNA, SRP-RNA, Vault RNA, and snoRNA, which may also exert gene regulatory functions. Using primary immune cells, we investigated which RNA biotypes were consistently present in EV and which types were differentially incorporated depending on the type of stimulation imposed on the cells. Levels of not only miRNAs, but also other non-coding RNA types varied depending on the status of the parent cell and may be further explored as biomarkers or functional entities within EV.
Add to Calendar ▼2017-09-28 09:00:002017-09-28 10:00:00Europe/LondonExploring the Small RNA World of Extracellular VesiclesExtracellular Vesicles 2017 in Cripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UKCripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UKSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
